The Classic Bonsai Plant of Japan
If You Are Interested In Growing Your Own Bonsai – You Can!
The history of the cultivation and appreciation of the bonsai plant is a very long one. The material used is almost boundless as to variety of plants and is no longer limited to the woody kinds only. Whether they are woody plants or herbaceous, dwarfing without hurting their natures, and keeping or modeling the vividness of Nature’s own, are first objects in selecting and training of the material.
The finished bonsai should be roughly classified into three groups – naturally dwarfed plants; artificially dwarfed plants; dwarfed plants raised from seedlings and cuttings. Limiting myself to trees and shrubs, including conifers, I will touch on the first of these, naturally dwarfed trees.
NATURALLY DWARFED TREES
On rocky crevices of high mountains, on perpendicular cliffs of tiny islands, on wettish bogs, and on the poorest and driest mountain slopes, some trees have lived through bravely for almost a century, or more, only growing a few feet high, panting and straining under the pressure of hard weather. Some of these trees are worthy of our appreciation of their dwarfed but stout trunks, and weather-beaten picturesque branches.
The notable examples are Sargent Juniper (Juniperus chinensis sargenti) of Iyo and Echigo Provinces, Japanese Black Pine (Pinus thunbergi) of Shodoshima, Yeddo spruce of Hokkaido and the Kurile Islands, and the rhododendrons obtusum and kiusianum of Kyushu.
Sargent Juniper dwells on high perpendicular cliffs, not accessible by climbing; however, nearly all the noted habitats are now barren of material as it was collected wantonly by the professional collectors.
When I was a boy, nice naturally dwarfed trees were found, many on Mt. Ishizuchi of Iyo Province. A professional collector once told me a story of the toil and superstition of his collecting, which will well illustrate how such collecting is done for a livelihood. By his keen eyes or with the aid of a field-glass, from far beneath on the cliff, he first finds a nice tree, suitable to be trained as a bonsai plant -which often may vanish into the fog above. He then seeks a suitable spot near the edge of the cliff where he may sleep for the night.
Next, he draws a circle some six feet in diameter, and stands on the edge of it, He takes off his upper cloth, or working coat, and places it within the circle, facing toward him. The coat is a substitute for his Deity, and he places grains of rice before it as an offering. Then he prays solemnly, “I am a dwarf tree collector by profession. Please let me rent the spot for the night.” After the prayer is done, feeling that he will not encounter or meet with mischief from long-nosed goblins or monsters, he rests for the night.
In the morning he ties firmly one end of a rope to a tree trunk on the cliff’s edge and the other end to his body.
Holding the coiled ropes and tools such as hammer and chisel, which are used to remove the roots from the rock, and with saw, scissors and knife, he gratefully works his way downward to the tree, moving along the cliff. Often the tree is growing on the concave part of the cliff, perhaps underneath a protruding rock; in such cases he lowers himself by the rope to the nearby desired dwarf tree, and then swinging himself, he patiently awaits a chance to grasp the tree or the cliff nearby where he can reach the tree.
The digging is a most patient and laborious work, taking many hours. Roughly describing his routine of work, the old timer had frightened me, telling, with an exaggerated gesture, how, had he not prayed, the goblin or monster might come and untie the rope while he worked on the cliff below”. Oh! the good old timer is dead long ago, but whenever I recall him I recall the poem “The Last Leaf,” by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Perhaps he should be called, fittingly, one of the “last leaves” in his orthodox faith and way. Good, kindly and genial man he was.
So too should we reverence the trees we take.
The bonsai plant we cultivate will be worth all the trouble we take.
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